INTO THE STUDIO

Journal of a Mixed Media Photographer

This October, I traveled to Seoul, South Korea for an exhibition of my work at the Datz Museum of Art, called Journey of Transformation. I was not prepared for how profound this trip would be for me as an artist. It moved me in layers. The first layer was seeing the installation at the museum.

You enter the Datz Museum through a courtyard filled with growth and whimsy. Potted plants fill a corner. A fountain, designed to echo the one at the San Francisco Art Institute, anchors the center. A pale blue cabinet of curiosities adorns one wall. Each detail coalesces to imbue the space with charm and creative possibility.

Here you turn left to enter the Museum through two wooden doors. A board-formed concrete wall creates a vestibule. On that wall hangs my piece Regeneration #2,exquisitely printed by Datz Press, so that the feather seems three-dimensional. Across from it is a stunning work by Bryant Austin, one of three other artists in the exhibit. From here you travel into the first gallery where Bryant’s large prints of whales and the sun run like a spine down the center of the room. As a counterpoise to the bold drama of Bryant’s prints, is the quiet but powerful string of 4 x 5 inch gelatin silver prints by Hendrik Paul, detailing subtleties of the natural world. Facing this work, on the opposite wall is an aerial perspective of the earth – images by Minny Lee that document her journey from East to West by airplane. The earth’s topography creates rich abstractions.

At the end of this expansive space, you turn right into a smaller room hung with nine prints from my Sanctuary series, installed with ample room to breathe. To the left is an alcove with windows facing the trees, whose branches reflect off the glass of several more prints by Hendrik and Minny. Returning to the room filled with Sanctuary, you notice a gap in the wall, a doorway into a dimly lit room. Once inside, the space is womb-like, painted dark gray, and lit only by spotlights shining on each of the 9 small collages from my Invocationseries. This was an epiphany for me to see my work so cleverly installed. Wall color and spotlighting allowed the meaning in these pieces to expand beyond their frames and fill the entire space with darkness and wonder.

I created these nine mixed media collages specifically for the Datz Museum. Named Incantation, all together they speak of the power of surrendering to the darkness and the unknown. Only then can the unexpected blessing of the feather arrive. Each piece is also inscribed with a handwritten blessing or quote (sometimes hidden), as a reminder that the right words at the right time can open, create magic, and even heal.

As you exit this gallery and enter the light again, you find a bowl full of scrolls tied in red ribbon. These are offered as a gift for each visitor. Inside is an image of my collage, Blessing #3, and one of several quotes (typed in both Korean and English) that has inspired me in my creative work. I am so grateful to the Datz Museum staff for keeping the bowl full so that visitors may take home a bit of inspiration with them.

I picked one at random to share here:

“Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.” – Mary Oliver

I stand still today, astonished and grateful to Sangyon Joo, Kwan Hoon, Ming Jung, and all the others at the Datz Museum and Press for making this exquisite exhibition possible.

Journey of Transformation is on exhibit through February 24, 2019 at the Datz Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea. You can view more installation photographs at www.datzmuseum.org.

I was delighted to be invited to write a guest post for Britt Bravo, who has always been so supportive of my creative projects. This post was originally published on her Big Vision Consulting Blog, on October 6, 2016.

Today I want to share two strategies I use when initiating a new creative project.

1. Create a project bulletin board

I always begin a new creative project by clearing the bulletin board over the primary worktable in my studio. Over time, I fill this board with my own notes, author quotes, single words, images, and small objects – all of which are connected to the new series. It grows and changes with the project. New items are added, some things are removed, and everything gets reorganized. I love the immediate visibility of the bulletin board. It provides a strong anchor of meaning and inspiration.

Pictured here is my bulletin board as it looks today. There are quotes by Rumi, Terry Tempest Williams, David Whyte, Martha Graham, a feather, a set of angel wings, title ideas scrawled onto Post-its, and more. All of these are fueling my latest series of collages, called Invocations, about the benevolence found in darkness.

2. Find an object that represents your project

I will often select an object that becomes a symbol for the entire series I am working on. That object keeps my artwork in the forefront of my mind. For example, with the Invocations series, it is a feather (often propped up inside a nest). In my studio, I have a gold painted feather standing up inside a real bird’s nest in a corner near my main workspace. I also have a little felted nest (pictured here) filled with wooden eggs and a white feather on the ledge above the kitchen sink in my house, where I can see it every time I do the dishes. Even if I can’t be in the studio all the time, this object inspires me to think about my creative work. In the past, I have enhanced the symbol further by wearing jewelry with that symbol, or using a rubber stamp with that symbol — basically finding easy ways to keep that symbol close by, and thereby keep the project near me.

I share my thoughts here with the hope that they will be helpful for anyone who is initiating any kind of long-term project. I would love to hear your own ideas too. Please share them in the comments!

So ends the spare and elegant short story by Amy Hempel, titled The Man in Bogotá. I first read this story as a teenager, and its final note left a deep impression on me. So when I got a phone call a few months ago from my father who asked to use 6 of my new collages to accompany this story in a limited-edition artist book he was making, I got goosebumps. Of course, I said yes. Now the book is complete. I am happy to share some photos of it here.

Here are some technical notes from the colophon:

“The Man in Bogotá has been made as a limited edition of forty copies in the summer and fall of 2015. The photo collages are by Mary Daniel Hobson and have been printed as high-resolution digital prints on Entrada 300 rag paper by Rhiannon Alpers at the San Francisco Art Institute. Rhiannon Alpers also printed the text in Adobe Garamond by letterpress on Coronado SST paper. The circular holes in the pages were laser cut at Magnolia Editions in Oakland and the covers and slipcases have been made at the studio of John DeMerritt, Emeryville, California. Charles Hobson designed the edition and painted the night sky for the covers and the insets with acrylic paint on Canson Mi-Tientes paper. Charles Hobson assembled and bound the edition with the assistance of Alice Shaw.”

“This book began with a question – one familiar to most parents. “Can you tell me a story?” My daughter Anna has always loved stories, and this question floated constantly through our lives together, surfacing most often while driving. We live in Muir Beach, and almost everywhere we go includes a 12-minute car ride over a curvy mountain road. At 3.5 years old, Anna would call that question from the back seat on our way to preschool in Mill Valley, “Mommy, can you tell me a story?” And I would say, “Yes, if you can help me. Once upon a time, there was a….” She would fill in, “A wolf.” Then I would add, “And this wolf was…,” and she would say, “Hungry!”

From there I would start a story, pausing throughout the tale to have her add in details. The basic plot would come out quick and fast, off the top of my head with Anna’s help. In The Wolf Who Ate the Sky, a wolf goes to bed so hungry that when he wakes in the morning he eats the first thing he sees – the sky – and the world goes black. Undaunted by darkness, a young boy with a flashlight and a team of animals sets out to recover the sky and bring back the light.

Anna and I made many stories in this manner – most were only told once. But there was something about The Wolf Who Ate the Sky that caught our imagination.”

I have spent the day in the studio getting ready for my next Open Studio. I love how this event inspires me to polish up my space, rehang the art, and make some new pieces.

If you are in the area, I hope you will come by. This event offers a nice chance to learn more about my creative process and see a wide selection of my mixed media photography. In addition, I am going to have art activities for kids, notecards for sale, and tea & treats for everyone.

This time, you can also purchase signed copies of The Wolf Who Ate the Sky. This children’s book was co-authored by me and my daughter, Anna. It was illustrated and designed by my father, Charles Hobson. Heyday Books has just published it! Anna and I will be around all weekend to inscribe copies upon request.

At the same time, my neighbors, Wendy Johnson & Peter Rudnick, will also be having an Open Garden and Spring Plant Sale, including drought tolerant plants and information about water-wise gardening.

When my daughter Anna was 3.5 years old, we created this story together during car rides to and from preschool. In telling it again and again, it grew into the story that is now in this book. My father, artist Charles Hobson, did a fabulous job illustrating and designing it. This 3-generation project is now on Amazon, heydaybooks.com, and in local bookstores. Signed copies will also be at my next Open Studio on April 25 & 26 in Muir Beach.

Here is a taste of the plot: “A very hungry wolf eats the sky, plunging the whole world into darkness, but a brave boy and a menagerie of animals are determined to bring back the light.”